Environmental Science/Earth

QuestionBased on our current rate of pollution, deforestation, and and just general destruction of the Earth, is there any time in the near future that Earth can be balanced/restored?

AnswerThe Earth is not in balance, nor is it out of balance.

It’s only the very thin outer shell, that comprises the biosphere that is being destabilized. Unfortunately that’s where we live.

The only serious problem the biosphere faces is caused by the modification of the optical properties of the atmosphere by the buildup of excessive quantities of greenhouse gasses (mainly carbon dioxide) that trap solar heat.

The reason that deforestation is seen as a bad thing is mainly in reference to tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests are actually a nett producer of greenhouse gasses. How that works is that trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, then eventually they die and so put it all back into the air. But not all goes back as carbon dioxide. Rotting vegetation produces methane so some of the carbon goes back methane and methane is between 23 and 35 times as potent a greenhouse gas as is CO2 itself. Si best is to clear them and use all that timber to replace plastics.

The problem here is that tropical lands are the best place to grow sugarcane from which cheap ethanol can be produced. So we are all brainwashed to believe that we should “preserve forests especially tropical rainforests”.

And the oil producers laugh all the way to the bank.

And no, we cannot restore the “balance” unless we bring the levels of carbon dioxide in the air back to, or at least near, what they were prior to the 1930s and 1940s.

The magic level I want to see is below 299 parts of CO2 per million of air.

If that doesn’t happen soon then the heating becomes absolutely unstoppable.

Some 25 years ago I proposed the enhancement in the fertility of agricultural soils as a means to sequester the CO2. (See my paper “An Agricultural Solution to the Greenhouse Effect”) May you can Google it.

The situation is now extremely urgent.

Of course if you live on high ground and have plenty of food in stock and own a gun and plenty of ammunition, then your chances of survival are probably pretty good.

Expertise

I maintain that it is practical and economical to end global warming and completely halt climate change. By necessarily must include the elimination of our use of fossil fuels. The science on these issues is often deliberately distorted for marketing reasons. I can answer most questions on the science and mathematics of global warming. I can answer the questions on what we must do to restore climate and weather stability.

Experience

Author of PRIORITY ONE Together We can Beat Global Warming. Published as paper-back in US and hard-cover in Australia. Agricultural consultant both in Australia and the US. Aviation meteorologist and lecturer.

OrganizationsAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science Australian Gliding Association

PublicationsVarious agricultural magazines and newspapers.

Education/CredentialsNo degree, but post graduate work on nuclear physics and early computer designs at Dept of Physics, University of Sydney. Numerous lectures and presentations at colleges both in Australia and the US.

Awards and HonorsSeveral agricultural design awards at the Australian National Agricultural Field Days. Winner Queensland Gold Coast City 2001 Innovation Design Award